Found good winter tires to buy




I have Continental DWS in the front, they're still in good shape, but DWS could not find traction even with 1 inch of snow in the rears.
So I upgraded to a set of Billzaks for the rears, which the car ate in 1 season (they were only 80% thread depth when I got them). The inner edge is really low.
So I wanted to let you guys know that I found a great deal on Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7.
I ordered them, $118/ea for the rear, stock size.
They should be good to keep me going.
Hakkapeliitta 7 held the land speed record on ice. I think that now the 8 series hold it.




And yes, my plan was to eventually update the fronts to Blizzak's as well.
Turns out that the Blizzaks wear a lot faster than the DWS.
I bought the Blizzaks at 80% thread with the front DWS having 80% of thread since new (had those since new and 1 season) when the blizzak's went into the rear.
And when I started to drive, at the beginning I was very careful with this combo, but towards the end of the season, I saw that traction control and ABS were taking care of business with no problem, so I stopped being worried about having winters in the rear only.
In NYC we only really have snow couple times a year and then the average traffic speed is 5-20 MPH. Speed limit is 25 MPH. The parkways don't do much better, as everyone freaks out.
And in rain, the DWS is slightly better than the Blizzak, but the traction control keeps everything in line.




As stated a set of Hakka 7 on the rear and the DWS on the front will create some serious potential for understeer.
We have Hakka R3s on the E63s and Hakka R2s on the Subaru STi. Both are amazing tires as well, but I would have preferred a set of Hakka 7/8 studded if we did not have a finished garage floor.




These seem to have the stud locating spots.
I wonder how aftermarket studs from a tractionizer compare with factory studs.




These seem to have the stud locating spots.
I wonder how aftermarket studs from a tractionizer compare with factory studs.
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And faced with dry pavement, how long till the studs wear down of break away? Can you drive a whole season?




However, winter tires definitely through more sand/pebbles than summer tires due to their HUGE number of sipes.
I had a set of Hakka 4 studded tires for 3 seasons and the studs showed minimal wear despite probably being driven on dry roads in the winter.
FWIW the Nokian studs stay in place very well. I didn't lose any studs over the 4 years.
really curious about the studded tires now.
what is more effective an all wheel drive car with all season tires or a rwd car with studded winter tires?
coming from a bmw x drive..




Also anyone will say winter rwd > all season awd
Thats more or less debateable but you can watch YouTube videos
Last edited by Adi-Benz; Feb 8, 2019 at 01:00 PM.




Something heavy with a decent amount pressing and studded tires may be better than AWD but not in all snow conditions.
Slush, fresh snow, packed snow, ice + snow are very different.
Kinda how the DOT highway plough trucks are loaded with weight and have chains but traction is only in the rear, one or two axles.




Initially it seemed these are more noisy than the Blizzaks and that dry and slightly wet traction is quite inferior.
But then I decided to do a burnout.
Now it's much better ..
The top layer may have been too new/glazed.




really curious about the studded tires now.
what is more effective an all wheel drive car with all season tires or a rwd car with studded winter tires?
coming from a bmw x drive..
A studded tire such as the General Arctic Altimax is not in the same league as a Nokian studded tire.
The North American market is JUST coming around to considering winter tires for winter conditions, that they are not pushing any of the high end winter tires that are studded. They spent years dispelling 'studded winter tires' as being inferior, and their testing methodology supports this. Tirerack tests what they sell, and consistently show the studded Arctic Altimax to be inferior to the best 'grip' winter tires such as the Blizzak/X-Ice3 etc. But if they tested the high end studded tires, the results would be different.
However, if you RARELY drive in icy/hard packed snow covered roads than studded tires are of less value.
FWIW I drove my c63 with winter tires for 2 winters and had ZERO issues. The C63 is very well balanced and handles very nicely with smooth steering input on snow covered roads.
Obviously an AWD vehicle with winter tires will outperform (accelerate / corner) a RWD winter vehicle with winter tires, but they will both stop in a similar distance.
AWD systems are very different. I prefer the AWD system in my Subaru STi versus our E63s. The Subaru handles quite neutral but you can induce oversteer if you want. The E63 tends to oversteer as it appears to be definitely biased towards the rear.
Last edited by thesaintusa; Feb 8, 2019 at 05:56 PM.



